Year: 2014

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Become a RoOMeR

One thing I’ve run into over and over in my writing research is this idea of a “Writer’s Platform.” The essential idea is that modern writers need to build a digital presence that allows people to “try before they buy,” so to speak.

I’ve had this blog for years. It’s always been a rather personal weblog, and over the next couple years I foresee it becoming more of a portal to my art whilst (hopefully) maintaining a personal voice. This website offers plenty of content, but not all of it is good (or meant for a broad, impersonal audience).

This falls into the “platform” part, and I need your help to bolster the “Writer” part. I want to create a clan of readers, people who will help me take my writing to a new level. I want readers who will fall into one of these categories:

  1. Someone who thinks I’m a good writer and isn’t afraid to tell me so
  2. Someone who thinks I’m a bad writer and isn’t afraid to tell me so
  3. Someone who thinks I’m a good writer who needs some work and isn’t afraid to tell me so
  4. Someone who is awesome

If you fall into any of these categories, please Sign Up to read my stuff. You’ll become a RoOMeR (Reader of Of Miles Rausch), which will entitle you to exactly one free gift which contains UNTOLD HOURS OF ENJOYMENT.

Visit the Sign Up page to learn (a very little) more!

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Coffee Grounds: What’s Up With That?

Coffee Grounds: What's Up With That?

It began in Wal-mart. It was early days for Holli and I: newly married, recently Sioux Fallsian, and considering our morning beverage options in Impulse Buyer Heaven. We stood amongst the coffee, and my stomach twisted with conflict.

I had grown up with CDs (coffee drinkers), and my mother’s habits in particular had made a lasting impression on me. She would fill a large travel thermos every morning before driving the ten miles to St. Lawrence School, where she taught. Inevitably, all those days and all that distance gave way to accidents, spillage, and stains.

In my young memory, I recall scores of school papers with faint, caramel blotches marring them. I remember tote bags splattered with caffeinated Rorschach shapes. I recollect carpet and mats in our van permanently discolored.

To break the cycle, I had vowed never to drink coffee. Yet decades later, I found myself on the precipice of my own pitch-colored obsession pondering a common question.

Coffee grounds: what’s up with that?

Continue reading “Coffee Grounds: What’s Up With That?”

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Where’s the Beef? (Beef = Post)

You might be wondering where my weekly blog post was this week? Well, I had it written before Sunday, but these things really need to get published during the week, when people are desperate for something to distract them from their day jobs.

Staying true to my word, here’s a post for the week. However, I promise two posts next week.

:-O <—- a sideways version of your expression right now

Don’t expect anything earth shattering, but that’s what’s up.

Enjoy your beef. (Beef = post)